(Amazon's track listing tells you the songwriters rather than the artists!). This collection of tracks by veterans of the Austin club scene could make a lot of Yankees want to hop a plane to the Texas capitol. All tracks w... more &raquoere recorded especially for this album, and far from being a throwaway like many such projects, this is a solid album-of-the-year candidate. The (relatively) known quantities present are Dale Watson, Don Walser, Ted Roddy, and The Wagoneers (reformed just for the occasion), and they each turn in a solid track.

But even better are some whose music has never crossed Texas borders. Roy Heinrich's "A Face In The Crowd" and Cornell Hurd Band's "I Cry, Then I Drink, Then I Cry" are honky-tonk classics. Bruce Robison (with Kelly Willis on harmony vocals) turns in a gem with "Poor Man's Son," and his brother Charlie ends the vocal portion of the album with a very strange, but endearing, track, "Sunset Boulevard." There isn't a bad cut in the lot, and if it's the closest you're going to get to Austin, get it quick. NOTE: Some of the artists have subsequently released a different version of their track on one of their own albums.&laquo less

Synopsis

Product Description

(Amazon's track listing tells you the songwriters rather than the artists!). This collection of tracks by veterans of the Austin club scene could make a lot of Yankees want to hop a plane to the Texas capitol. All tracks were recorded especially for this album, and far from being a throwaway like many such projects, this is a solid album-of-the-year candidate. The (relatively) known quantities present are Dale Watson, Don Walser, Ted Roddy, and The Wagoneers (reformed just for the occasion), and they each turn in a solid track.

But even better are some whose music has never crossed Texas borders. Roy Heinrich's "A Face In The Crowd" and Cornell Hurd Band's "I Cry, Then I Drink, Then I Cry" are honky-tonk classics. Bruce Robison (with Kelly Willis on harmony vocals) turns in a gem with "Poor Man's Son," and his brother Charlie ends the vocal portion of the album with a very strange, but endearing, track, "Sunset Boulevard." There isn't a bad cut in the lot, and if it's the closest you're going to get to Austin, get it quick. NOTE: Some of the artists have subsequently released a different version of their track on one of their own albums.

CD Reviews

Texas honky-tonk country still thrives

Gregg R. Geil | Austin, TX USA | 08/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those of us who love honky-tonk country but are stuggling to endure this "pop-country" stretch in which tuneless, juvenile, soft-rock enthralls Country Station programmers, there is good news - "Austin Country Nights." This is an album full of whiskey-soaked, honky-tonk two steps. It has songs with an edge and some are upbeat but they drip with honky-tonk authenticity. If Tim McGraw has you racing to retch in the toilet bowl, don't give up on Country music. Cornell Hurd, Dale Watson and the rest of this album will restore your country soul."